Kopi luwak coffee (kopi luwak)

Among all the famous types of coffee, the most elite and expensive is Kopi Luwak (Kopi Luwak). This rare coffee, which has an extraordinary taste, comes from Indonesia, where its plantations are located on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. In Indonesian, "Kopi" means "coffee, " while the word "Luwak" means a small animal, thanks to which this expensive coffee is born.

Luvak or otherwise civet is a tree cat that belongs to the genus of carnivorous mammals in the Viverrye family. This small-sized animal with a rather long tail and short paws looks like a mixture of marten and cat. Interestingly, earlier this animal was actively fought, since it was considered a pest - civet was always not averse to eating coffee beans. Moreover, it is believed that, being a great "connoisseur" of coffee beans, civet always prefers exclusively the most ripe and best fruits.

Nevertheless, the stomach of the animal, hunting for coffee, is not able to digest all the beans, so the remaining food treated with enzymes is naturally excreted from the civet body. It is after this that plantation workers collect excrement, from which grains are separated, washed and fried.

However, the question arises: why Kopi Luwak coffee (Kopi Luwak), which is received in such a dubious way, is worth just mad money and is so highly valued by foodies. What processes occur with coffee beans in the animal's body? Answers to these questions came from Canadian scholar Massimo Marcone.

As a result of his research, it turned out that during digestion, civet breaks down proteins contained in coffee beans. Moreover, some proteins are removed from the whole coffee, due to which Kopi Luwak coffee made from beans (Kopi Luvak) does not mustard so much.

By the way, in addition to clarifying the nature of the taste of this drink, the scientist thought about obtaining Kopi Luwak coffee (Kopi Luwak) in another way, for which he went to Ethiopia, where the same animals live, and a similar variety of coffee grows. In the process, Massimo Marcone discovered that proteins in the intestines of local civets do not break down as thoroughly as they do in the digestive system of Indonesian predators, and it will not be possible to obtain Kopi Luwak coffee (Kopi Luwak) in this way.

In addition, the scientist came to the conclusion that the process of processing coffee beans in the intestines of animals with enzymes has much in common with the method of fermenting coffee, where the same substance is used - lactic acid bacteria. In view of this information, he suggested that by improving the fermentation method, a person would be able to get Kopi Luwak (Kopi Luwak) coffee artificially, but then he would cease to be an elite, rare and expensive drink.